Law 'incubators' help new attorneys

Two local law schools have opened “incubators” to help newly minted attorneys get their start in the legal profession and provide affordable services to clients.

Nine recent graduates of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law are working out of the Center for Solo Practitioners, which opened in November. The attorneys, all of whom have graduated and passed the bar within the past five years, pay rent in a shared downtown office and work with a director who provides practical advice along with mentors as they begin to build their businesses.

The program was designed by professors Lilys McCoy and Luz Herrera, who wanted to find a way to provide affordable legal assistance for low- and middle-income clients and help recent graduates gain the skills and experience they need to succeed in solo practice.

California Western School of Law started a similar incubator last June and now has 15 attorneys in two downtown locations.

As a requirement of that program, attorneys have to commit to 100 hours of pro bono legal work every year.

“It is not totally based on altruism. Part of our idea is that when you serve a client well, whether they can pay or not, you are really building your reputation and building your network, and that’s how you get referrals,” said Bob Seibel, a visiting professor at California Western School of Law and the director of the Access to Law Initiative. “It is definitely a program for people who have community service in mind, but we are aware it has some tangible benefits as well.”

The programs are part of a trend in the legal profession designed to help graduates build up their clientele, learn how to run a successful business and address the so-called justice gap in which people who need legal assistance can’t find affordable services.

Ten such postgraduate programs have been established under varying formats around the country, with some likening it to medical residency programs.

“The goal is to bring together alumni of the school who are interested in starting their own law practices, to bring them together in a supportive environment because it is difficult to start any business from the ground floor up,” said McCoy, who directs the Thomas Jefferson program. “And to put those new solo practitioners in touch with a segment of the population who have been traditionally underserved.”

Changes in the legal market have provided some motivation to create such postgraduate programs, said Beth Kransberger, associate dean for student affairs at Thomas Jefferson.

“A broader number of schools have understood that with the size of student loan debt nationally that students are graduating with, there is a profound responsibility to prepare them to be practice-ready. That has been a marvelous impetus,” she said.

A large number of new graduates nationally are not able to land legal jobs that require passing the bar. Only 55 percent of more than 43,700 law school graduates in 2011 had a law-related job nine months after graduation, according to news reports that analyzed data complied by the American Bar Association.

Several law schools across the country, including Thomas Jefferson, have been hit with lawsuits by former graduates claiming they were misled by school information on how many graduates land jobs.

McCoy said the incubator programs try to provide services to clients who are in the gap that exists between very poor who qualify for legal aid and the wealthy and corporate customers who can afford to pay law firms as much as $700 per hour or more.

“You have the vast majority in the middle — lower- and middle-income people — who don’t qualify for either and can’t access either,” McCoy said.

The attorneys offer services in a variety of areas, including family law, personal-injury law, employment law, estates and trusts, small-business advising, immigration law and criminal law. Each attorney operates a solo practice and has their own clients, but also benefits from the collaborative setting that allows them to consult with other lawyers.

Those in the Thomas Jefferson program pay from $250 to $500 for rent and have to provide their own malpractice insurance and other business costs.

McCoy said she doesn’t supervise or direct the legal work in the program but can provide “very general assistance” and answer questions about best practices for ethical conduct. She also helps connect lawyers with mentors in their specialties.

Seibel said the Cal Western program came about because too many graduates open law offices that fail because they don’t know enough about operating an office.

“They knew the law but didn’t know how to operate a practice,” he said. “The idea here is to help these younger lawyers have an economically viable practice while at the same time being able to provide low-cost service to the people in the community.”

Seibel said the two incubators don’t see themselves as competitors and occasionally refer clients to each other.

McCoy has brought in speakers to talk about the rigors and joys of starting a law practice and to address such topics as marketing, ethical practices and bookkeeping. She’s invited some of the Cal Western graduates to the sessions.

“We try to provide the new solos as much support as possible,” she said. “They face the challenges that all people who start a business face, whether it is starting a restaurant or a print and copy shop, or whether it’s starting a professional service like an electrician.

“I think every law school should have one of these programs,” McCoy said.